‘Johnny, come in and play!’ Video games better for kids than outdoor activities, study claims

Children’s increased interest in video games has been worrying many parents who would prefer they ‘go play outside.’ However, new research has shown that active video games may be a better source of physical activity than outdoor play.

A study by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, recently
published in the Games for Health Journal, suggests that video
games which wholly engage a child’s body are a good source of
physical activity for children.

“What we wanted to do is we wanted to compare an active video
game to how young children generally get their physical activity
– unstructured outdoor play. We’ve found that the active video
game did provide an active source of activity for the kids,”
director of the Activity Lab of the University of Tennessee,
Hollie Raynor told RT.

Scientists conducted the research on children between the ages of
five and eight, who were given three accelerometers—one for the
hip and one for each wrist.

Scientists monitored the children’s activity as they played
outdoors and played active 20 minute video game sessions for a
three week period. The participants were allowed to rest at any
point, the researchers said.

The outdoor sessions took place on a playground and the video
game sessions took place in front of a 40-inch television with
children playing the Xbox 360 Kinect. The Kinect Adventures River
Rush game was selected for the study as it involves the whole
body and doesn’t require special skills, according to the
researchers.

“A significant difference between active video gaming and
outdoor play was found for the accelerometer located on the hip
of participants, with active video gaming having a greater
percentage of moderate to vigorous intensity than unstructured
outdoor play,” the lab’s press-release said.

Raynor said that the new research is different and more effective
than the previous studies.

“Previous studies investigating active video games had not
investigated the energy expenditure of these games as compared to
unstructured outdoor play. The purpose of the study was to
compare energy expenditure to unstructured outdoor play,”
she said in the press-release.

However, critics have argued that some studies may not be as
accurate as one might hope. Ted Rall, political cartoonist and
author, told RT that one should rely on common sense as there are
“studies that justify just about everything.”

“Some of them are funded by industries that stand to benefit
from the studies. Other times scientists try to justify their
jobs by coming up with novel conclusions,” he said.

“There is a long sordid history of studies being used and
financed, for example by tobacco industry and alcohol industries,
to justify those industries’ activities and their profits.
Whereas obviously common sense dictates that booze and smoking
aren’t good for you. Science is supposed to be the search for
truth. But unfortunately some of the studies serve to obfuscate
the truth.”